Soldering is a process in which two or more components, such as metal components, are joined together by melting and flowing a solder material into the joint. Semiconductor chips, for example power semiconductor chips, may be mounted on substrates or other semiconductor chips by using soldering methods. During soldering, however, inter-metallic phases can be formed between two or more of the metallic materials employed on either sides of the joint. These resulting inter-metallic phases may turn out to have a corrosion resistance, which is not sufficiently high, so that in a worst case the entire solder connection may break off. Therefore, there is a continuous need for providing stable and permanently reliable solder connections.